THE UST Hospital (USTH) failed to rush to the rescue of a woman suffering from birth pangs when the public hospital ambulance she was riding in got stalled on campus last September 11.
Hospital officials said that medical protocol barred them from helping the woman.
The Ospital ng Sampaloc ambulance carrying Agnes Feliza had entered the campus because of the floods around the district when its engine konked out at around 10 p.m. in front of the St. Raymund’s Building. The ambulance was supposed to bring Feliza to the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital in Sta. Cruz, Manila.
It was the height of typhoon “Marce.”
When they asked for an ambulance from the UST Hospital, UST said its ambulance personnel had already checked out.
Dr. Maria Christina Angeles of the Ospital ng Sampaloc, Feliza’s attending physician, said the USTH’s ambulance had no team of doctors and nurses that must accompany the patient in an ambulance as part of medical protocol, when the incident happened.
“The ambulance cannot go without the team,” Angeles said.
Dr. Edgardo Orlina, administrative director of USTH Clinical Division, said the USTH cannot respond immediately to emergency situations such as Feliza’s since its ambulances do not serve as emergency medical services (EMS), or out-of-hospital ambulances that provide treatment to people in need of urgent medical attention.
“What our ambulance usually does is to transfer patients from one hospital to another or to bring them home after getting treatment in the hospital,” Orlina told the Varsitarian.
Orlina added that UST couldn’t help Feliza because it was her attending physician who requested for assistance.
“The request should come from the patient (herself),” Orlina said, adding that the hospital may face legal consequences if it just enters the a situation without the patient’s consent. “The hospital will be responsible for whatever will happen to the patient while it is in the ambulance,” he explained.
Thirty minutes after the incident, Feliza was “rescued” by another doctor from the Ospital ng Sampaloc who brought her own car to transfer the patient to the Fabella hospital.
Orlina said the incident was not the first of its kind, citing a complaint by Alex Perez made March last year.
The complaint stemmed from the failure of the USTH ambulance to respond on an emergency involving Perez’ daughter, a student of UST, who had a seizure just outside the campus.
In a letter sent to the Office of the Rector, a copy of which was given to the Varsitarian, former USTH president Cenon Alfonso also cited the ambulance being hospital-based as a defense to Perez’ complaint.
“Unlike EMS, the USTH does not maintain as part of its services on-site or injury site resuscitation and pick-up,” read Alfonso’s letter. “Patients are transported from the site of the injury (outside USTH) by either fully-equipped professional EMS or by their relatives, into the hospital.”
